Inspiration
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How to Demonstrate Trust in Others (Elevate Your Leadership Part VI)
Trust is the glue to successful relationships. It’s important to recognize whether you are building or breaking trust with the people you work with, serve and lead. Then ask, how can I demonstrate trust and confidence in others?
How to Maximize Potential (Elevate Your Leadership Pt. III)
Do you tend to focus on people’s strengths or on their weaknesses? A leader’s job is to recognize potential and help them reach it. Are you doing that?
ISPA Conference Expo Awards honor exhibitors and sponsors
The second annual ISPA Conference Expo Awards were a celebration of sponsors and exhibitors whose presence in the Expo marked the pinnacle of resource partners’ creativity and dedication within the spa industry.
Jane Cho; Reviving Mental Vitality: Tools to Rejuvenate Mental Energy and Banish Burnout
In the face of high stress, uncertainty and demanding work and home lives, restoring mental vitality is crucial for success. “Just grinding it out” no longer works as a strategy to reach important goals. Managers will learn to identify risks for burnout in their teams and tools to prevent it from taking hold, and all participants will gain tools to restore their mental vitality.
Pulse: Is “burnout” directly proportional to the number of hours worked, or what other factors contribute?
Jane Cho: Burnout is distinct from “stress” or “fatigue.” Working long hours does not necessarily signal burnout, but it can be an important indicator. Some people can work 12 hours a day and get happily absorbed into a flow state, engaging in regenerative, energizing aspects of their job. Others can work six hours a day experiencing a continuous state of frustrated soul-sucking dread. We can look at the number of hours worked as one factor in assessing risk for burnout, but it is only one point in a larger system. If you notice that you are overworking, or that your teams are working a lot of overtime, leaders will first want to understand why and then look at other potential risk factors like overall morale, autonomy, skills match, recognition practices and others.
John Korpi’s Lasting Legacy
From his role in the creation of ISPA in 1991 to joining the board in 1992 and being elected chair just a year later, John Korpi brought a steady hand to a spa community needing a vision and direction. A former hotel executive, Korpi transitioned into the spa world when he joined Buena Vista Hospitality Group, managing renowned properties like French Lick Springs Resort and PGA National.
Katlyn Hatcher: Attracting Guests through Innovative Treatment Offerings
For spa leaders seeking ways to energize the guest experience and refresh service offerings to boost the bottom line, look no further: This panel discussion will explore innovative service offerings successfully adopted within a variety of spa types along with lessons learned and tips to consider.]
Pulse: Aside from the customer experience, does offering innovative treatments help spas to attract and motivate treatment providers?
Katlyn Hatcher: Adding wellness equipment has motivated our treatment providers and specialists as it allows them to further tailor the guest experience and be more prescriptive when recommending lifestyle and therapeutic recommendations. In addition to home products regimen recommendations, they are recommending alternative supplemental modalities to enhance the hands-on treatment provided. Our estheticians are educating guests on benefits of light therapy for skin and parlaying into the benefits of our whole-body red light bed; our fitness instructors can recommend at-home workouts and whole-body cryotherapy for recovery; our acupuncturist recommends wellness circuits as supplemental treatment. It creates a well-rounded wellness experience and educates guests on alternative therapies to enhance their day-to-day life. We incentivize our staff to recommend these enhancements as well. We also offer the red light therapy at no cost to our associates as a recovery tool and associate perk.
Leader of the Talent Talk: Smiley Poswolsky
PULSE: How does human connection play a role in attracting and retaining the industry’s best talent?
SMILEY POSWOLSKY: In the wake of the pandemic and the shift to hybrid work, the vast majority of employees— 70 percent—feel disconnected from their coworkers. That has led to the highest levels of employee disengagement ever recorded. In such a competitive labor market, companies have an incredible opportunity to make human connection a core part of how they attract and retain the spa industry’s top talent. Eighty-five percent of employees would be motivated to come into the office if they could socialize with co-workers or rebuild team bonds. Not to mention, 80 percent of Gen-Z and Millennial employees are looking to connect in-person with senior leadership and their managers. If we put human connection—and a “people first” strategy—as part of how we engage our talent from the second they apply to work with us, we can do a better job of attracting top talent and offer something that everyone is looking for right now.
Leading the Way Through Mentoring
SPA INDUSTRY LEADERS are often quick to point out all the ways in which their colleagues have supported their growth and played key roles in the success of their careers. Many can even cite a particular individual whose impact is greater than the rest. In some cases, these formative relationships happen by chance, but spa leaders seeking to foster growth in their teams, retain top employees and achieve their spas’ performance goals cannot simply place their trust in serendipity. Formal mentoring programs, though, can take luck out of the equation and help spas reach new heights.
Learning From Failure With Suneel Gupta
In 2014, the New York Times ran an image of Suneel Gupta within the article “Wearing Your Failures on Your Sleeve.”
Gupta commenced his keynote presentation on Day Two of the 2024 ISPA Conference by displaying the newspaper clipping, joking that he was literally the face of failure. “Everybody fails,” he said, “but long-term success comes from short-term embarrassment. So I decided to email this article to everyone I could.”
Level Up Your Management Game with Dr. Bryan K. Williams
ISPA members are already familiar with Dr. Bryan K. Williams, a sought-after speaker known for his dynamic presentations at past Conferences and Town Halls. A recognized authority on leadership and service excellence, Williams brings his passion for helping others thrive to the spa industry through the Manager Skills Workshop, now available on iLearn for an ISPA member-exclusive price.